Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
(Hebrews 10:23 (NIV))

Are you a person who likes to set goals in your life? Perhaps you have even gone so far as to develop a roadmap of the steps required to achieve your goals. Let’s face the facts. If you want something badly enough, you hold fast to the plan, you maintain a steady course, and you never take your eyes off of the prize!

If we are capable of doing this for a worldly treasure, why do we so often fail to do this very same thing for a treasure of eternal value? Why do we focus so much on this world when we claim to desire God’s will and His desires?

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-20 (NKJV))

Perhaps it is related to our human nature and our limited ability to comprehend what we do not see, after all, all of human history has been a struggle about desiring the things that we can see. When we desire what we cannot see, we are ridiculed. We are made fun of. We are told to grow up. We are told that if we can’t see it then it doesn’t exist!

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
(Hebrews 11:1 (NIV))

Have you ever seen God? I’m not talking about seeing His presence manifested in His creation. I am talking about actually seeing God. Let’s face facts. We cannot even begin to fathom His greatness. We cannot even begin to understand His omnipotence and His omnipresence. We cannot even begin to comprehend the awesomeness of heaven, yet we all have hope in these things. We have faith to proclaim that Jesus is Lord. We have faith to hold fast to His Word, yet, so many of us falter. So many of us are not unswerving in our hope and our faith. Thankfully, when we are not capable of doing this, our Lord is faithful. We must remember that it is not by our power that we hold unswervingly to Him, but it is His faithfulness that holds unswervingly to us. When we place our hope in Jesus, we have an unswerving guide who will never leave us, and because He will never leave us, we can be held unswervingly in His love.

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40:31 (NIV))

Have you ever had something happen that you can’t explain in any other way except that it had to be God’s hand doing it?

He still moves in people’s lives!

I was sitting in the congregation on Sunday when we were all challenged to pray for one word from God. We were then to pray for a scripture verse to explain that one word and how it will impact our individual lives. Out of nowhere the word “BIRD” came to mind, and of course my reaction was “What in the world . . . “

Before I could even finish that thought, Isaiah 40:31 came to mind. My reaction, of course, was to question how this came about. How did this word pop into my head and how did this passage become so front and center as a response to the word?

I was thinking that this was odd, and I was trying to trace through my thought process to see if there was something that I heard that triggered these two thoughts.

When I left to get in my car, you can probably guess what the first words were that I heard when I cranked the car and turned on the radio!

Isaiah 40:31

What are the odds?

How many of you have had an experience like this? How many of you have simply chalked it up to coincidence?

What is God doing to get your attention? Are you ignoring His efforts? Do you find little things that happen to be merely coincidence, or do you see God’s hand in them? We all need to open our hearts. We all need to open our minds, and we all need to open our souls to the concept that God is very real and that He is capable of reaching out to us when we don’t expect it.